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Not that I'm complaining... but HAL is driving my T.A. crazy!


canadarocks
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10 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

I just noticed a new Private Fare pricing yesterday...... so check your pricing people! 

 

Curious as to whether you received your private fare while you had a current booking?

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7 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Curious as to whether you received your private fare while you had a current booking?

I check daily... to be honest, multiple times daily. Dummy booking showed the private fare offer. I was quite honestly shocked that my TA was able to get it, and get the free gratuities as well. Just had her cancel our existing booking. 🙂 

Edited by canadarocks
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1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Curious as to whether you received your private fare while you had a current booking?

I did, on my 51 day Tales of the South Pacific(October 28, 2019) that I booked in Feb. 2018.  A private fare discount showed up earlier this week.  I got it applied with no problem, along with the current promotion of pre-paid gratuities.  I already had pre-paid gratuities and 2 $25 beverage cards from a prior promotion, and I lost the 2 $25 beverage cards, but, still ahead $350.

Edited by FlorenceItaly
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Us TAs are all for saving people money, but commonly fare reductions lower commissions.  If you cruise a lot with the same TA, they are happy to make the change because loyalty goes a long way.  Some of the "big box" firms charge "change fees" for refaring to cover a portion of the drop in commission.  If they don't, they just might not be too eager to pick up calls on the phone line for making changes to your reservation.

 

 

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I forgot to mention that I booked directly with a PCC.  When the adjustment was made it was a few days past the first penalty period.  Our final payment is July 30.  Some on our Roll Call that booked with TA's have not been able to have the gratuities added as it says "new bookings only".  Others with PCC's have.

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I have used the same TA for over 10 years and she never has a problem rebooking when the fare drops. For our Alaska cruise departing in two weeks she rebooked us 4 times. When we booked our SS cabin for the cruise/land tour the fare was $3799pp last August. It dropped continually and we rebooked the 4th and last time a week before final payment for $2749pp. We did give up the $200 OBC for booking a suite last August, but we are now ahead by over $1800 total. My TA notified of each price drop so I do not think she was worried about the drop in commissions. I believe she values my loyalty to her. We use her for all cruises and other travel like our Perillo Italy tour last year. 

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1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I have used the same TA for over 10 years and she never has a problem rebooking when the fare drops. For our Alaska cruise departing in two weeks she rebooked us 4 times. When we booked our SS cabin for the cruise/land tour the fare was $3799pp last August. It dropped continually and we rebooked the 4th and last time a week before final payment for $2749pp. We did give up the $200 OBC for booking a suite last August, but we are now ahead by over $1800 total. My TA notified of each price drop so I do not think she was worried about the drop in commissions. I believe she values my loyalty to her. We use her for all cruises and other travel like our Perillo Italy tour last year. 

You nailed it, loyalty.  And the reduction in OBC is probably the TAs boss policy to make sure they keep some of the commission on the booking.

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4 hours ago, FlorenceItaly said:

I forgot to mention that I booked directly with a PCC.  When the adjustment was made it was a few days past the first penalty period.  Our final payment is July 30.  Some on our Roll Call that booked with TA's have not been able to have the gratuities added as it says "new bookings only".  Others with PCC's have.

I also book with a PCC.  Last week I refared my April cruise and got the free grats, plus alot lower fare.  

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11 hours ago, cruisingrob21 said:

Us TAs are all for saving people money, but commonly fare reductions lower commissions.  If you cruise a lot with the same TA, they are happy to make the change because loyalty goes a long way.  Some of the "big box" firms charge "change fees" for refaring to cover a portion of the drop in commission.  If they don't, they just might not be too eager to pick up calls on the phone line for making changes to your reservation.

 

 

I wouldn't lump all "big box" firms together. I don't know about any others, but the one we use never charges a "change fee" (whereas a well-known  TA we tried years ago DID).  Also we've only gotten friendly and courteous service with each call.  When we added this latest sale to one of our bookings a few days ago, the gentleman helping us was as excited as we were.  We were able to keep all our OBC (we already had free gratuities and kept that plus all our other perks) and we upgraded from a Signature Suite to a Neptune Suite for a lower fare.  

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20 hours ago, canadarocks said:

3rd discount on my Panama Canal Feb. 2020 cruise in the last week! I have an awesome T.A., but she's understandably very overworked. 🙂

 

20 hours ago, canadarocks said:

I just noticed a new Private Fare pricing yesterday...... so check your pricing people! 

Yeah, I'm have weekly conversations with my TA about all the offers in the last couple of weeks.  We didn't qualify for the first, but we did get the free gratuity one on the 1 week sale.

 

Question - what's  "Private Fare pricing"?  I'm still keeping an eye on the price of our (far in the future) cruise hoping for a drop.  

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My travel agent has expressed frustration with HAL regarding non-refundable deposit fares that don't qualify for a re-pricing or other goodies.  My recent cruise did lead to an offer of an upgrade from a H category to a veranda.  I declined; I am happy where I am and I doubt that I'd spend much time on a veranda during an Alaskan cruise.

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4 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

Question - what's  "Private Fare pricing"?  I'm still keeping an eye on the price of our (far in the future) cruise hoping for a drop.  

It comes up for me when I do a dummy booking; it's not something I got through an email.  Months ago, when I first booked the same cruise, I did it because I got a Private Fare offer as well (which was much more than this one is)

Screen Shot 2019-07-06 at 4.41.25 PM.png

Edited by canadarocks
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3 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

Question - what's  "Private Fare pricing"?  I'm still keeping an eye on the price of our (far in the future) cruise hoping for a drop. 

 

You’ll either get an email or a snail mail (or both) alerting you to lower pricing on selected sailings.  These are targeted mailings so they don’t go to everyone.  Some are so good that it would be silly not to book them.

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4 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

 

Question - what's  "Private Fare pricing"?  I'm still keeping an eye on the price of our (far in the future) cruise hoping for a drop.  

Private fares are generally mailers that go out to select (who knows how??) people on select sailings, most times on short to medium term notice.  To see the fare online, you have to be logged in to your HAL account (sometimes only one person of a couple get it as well).

 

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2 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

You’ll either get an email or a snail mail (or both) alerting you to lower pricing on selected sailings.  These are targeted mailings so they don’t go to everyone.  Some are so good that it would be silly not to book them.

 

I should add that sometimes you don’t receive a mailing; you’ll just see them when you’re logged in.  Also check your junk mail folder because I tend to find a lot of them in there, even though I keep flagging them as not junk.  Technology is grand.

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2 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

Private fares are generally mailers that go out to select (who knows how??) people on select sailings, most times on short to medium term notice.

 

Your comment about booking on short to medium term notice may be the criteria that HAL's computers use.  I have never booked short/medium term.  So, "Hal the computer" thinks:  why bother sending an offer to this address?

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1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

My travel agent has expressed frustration with HAL regarding non-refundable deposit fares that don't qualify for a re-pricing or other goodies.  My recent cruise did lead to an offer of an upgrade from a H category to a veranda.  I declined; I am happy where I am and I doubt that I'd spend much time on a veranda during an Alaskan cruise.

Same here-our TA said frustrating to deal with compared to other lines.   

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